Almost forgot the Blue Moon

Blue Moon Aug. 2012

So the last entry I posted a shot from the morning after I had been chasing the Blue Moon of this past August.  So now I will post a shot from the moon rising on August 31, 2011 as I sat out on a county road here in Polk County, Oregon.  It is a place about 7 miles of road driving to get to it and occasionally I go by it when doing some climbs in the Eola Hills near to my house.  Sorry, the moon is not crystal clear as I was trying to bring a lot into the shot and was getting darker, and darker with the setting sun.  Still fun times working on the shot.

Anyway, the frontage area is a Christmas tree farm that is probably about 3 years post planting and then various woods with small farms mixed in them.  In the mid distance you have some lights of part of the Salem and Keizer areas and then spreads East to more farmland before it climbs into the Cascade Mt. Range.  During this time of year you get a good bit of low level haze from the last of the agricultural harvest.

So there!  I actually got back to what I said I was going to do and post another shot of this moon!

Have a great week!  Tim

Chasing the Moon

So the end of August brought a "Blue Moon" around the Earth and I did my best to hang out in some places and work on some shots of the moon but also to put it into the context of a photo with out having to go to Photoshop and work the magic to make it in there.  Of course you can do a great moon shot then have it appear really huge on a landscape of any kind and that can really be fun.   I may go and try that when I have some more time.

So on Friday 8/31/12 that is when the moon was full for the Blue Moon.  I went out to a county road here in Polk County a few miles from my home.  One there would be no street lighting there and there was some very good open spaces to shoot through and still have some foreground texture if I wanted it, which I did.  I got some decent shots from that night and will put one out in another posting soon.

The one I am sharing this time is from the next morning I got up around 5:30 and went down to Riverfront park here in Salem.  Did some shooting of the pedestrian bridge (cool thing to have) and then some more shots with the moon in the sky looking West into West Salem hills.  This shot I thought was good as I have an early morning fisherman on the Willamette River, the west hills covered with trees and the water tank along with the moon working its way to setting.  I only noticed while working on the edit of this that the moons reflection is at the very bottom of the photo.  I did not notice that due to some vegetation near where I was shooting.  Need to take a little more time when prepping the shot!

Thanks for stopping in and feel free to send me any comments!  Enjoy!

Tim

Blog? You have a blog?

Well as I was trolling through Facebook and thinking I have links from it to my 'blog area' but I have not been updating the blog.  So to go along with the only other entry of this year I will do another and just maybe try to update it more often.

Since February of this year I have been working on a correspondence course through New York Institute of Photography (NYIP).  I am doing so to help increase my knowledge and skill set beyond what I have learned from several seminars, reading periodicals, taking photos and just working hands on.  I think every little bit will help me as I strive to eventually leave the job of working for the man and working for me instead.  I have completed the first two units and will start getting the third unit ready to read, study and do the assignments.

I have also spent a considerable amount of money doing some advertising at one of our local High Schools (West Salem, Salem, OR).  I am on a handout/multi-fold sports calendar along with only two other advertisers.  From the company who sold the space, I am also the only photographer on any of the Fall advertising.  I will be offering somewhat lower pricing than other portrait and senior photographers.  Just trying to get some base work coming in so we'll see where it all goes.  Besides the advertising, 10% of my fee goes back to the school to support their athletic/academics programs.

I wanted to include a shot in this installment that I took on a lonely August Sunday morning drive as I was heading back to Salem.  I had spent the night in Spokane, WA and was taking the back highways in a Southerly/Southwesterly direction and church was not in session yet.  It kind of felt good to sit there on the side of the road and snap a few shots as a time of reflection.  I was just a week past from my father passing away suddenly on August 3rd and had and still have a lot of thoughts, emotions, etc running through my head.  Since he should be in the heavens I thought this photo would be appropriate.  

Enjoy and we'll see you on the road!

Tim

A long time - First Post of 2012

So, I have my blog page as my opening window when I fire up my explorer window and leave it open on a tab while I do other things. For months I have looked at the same posting that was the last one back in November. Wow! That is a long time and yes in the mean time I have been shooting, tending to other family things and doing my day job that pays for dream job.

So I decided to finally put up a shot that is at least from this current calendar year, since we are starting the month of April already. It is one or the same Cooper's Hawk that visits my backyard at least once a week in search of some unsuspecting smaller prey. I have had a fair amount of feathers this year so I am thinking between the Cooper's Hawk(s) and some Sharp Shinned Hawks they are keeping my free loading birds in check. But on the positive side, I would bet that the Hawks may only make a strike 1 in 10 tries. Most of the time the little birds are out of sight and silent!


Of course none of this would happen if I didn't enjoy having the other small birds around and feeding them. Plus many of them eat little insects and so forth and that help keep that population down in our hood.


In this case I wonder if the Hawk thinks that maybe a bird would just belly up to the feeder for and easy meal and hence become an easy meal.


Thanks for stopping in! Tim